1st Edition
Sport, Leisure and Culture in the Postmodern City
The widespread concept of the 'postmodern city' is frequently linked to the decline of traditional manufacturing industries and a corresponding wane of white working-class culture. In place of these appear flexible working practices, a diversified workforce, and a greater emphasis on consumption, leisure, and tourism. Illustrated by an interdisciplinary study of Leeds, a typical postmodern city, this volume examines how such cities have reinvented themselves - commercially, politically and spatially - over the past two decades. The work addresses issues like cultural policy, city-centre development, sport, leisure and identity, and explores different urban processes in relation to changing configuration of class, gender and ethnicity in the postmodern city.
Biography
Dr Peter Bramham is Reader in Leisure Studies and Professor Stephen Wagg is Reader in Sport and Society at Leeds Metropolitan University, UK
'A detailed and perceptive dissection of the postmodern transformation of the English city of Leeds, this book offers some fascinating insights into the complex processes of contemporary urban change and how its impacts are experienced by people who live in post-industrial cities. An authoritative, assured and highly readable account.' Stephen Williams, Staffordshire University, UK ’This text would be an interesting read for anyone who has interests in urban development and the cultural changes that may come along with it. Political aspirations and economic imperatives, intertwined with physical space and local/migrant cultures and races, show how Leeds provides a good example of an industrial city reinvented into a postmodern space.’ Annals of Leisure Research 'Sport, Leisure and Culture in the Postmodern City is an engaging account and affords a detailed analysis of the key historical, sociological and economic drivers that have and look to continue to shape Leeds as a city.' Australian Planner